Elandskloof was put under administration in 2006 by the Department of Land Affairs after a lengthy period of internal strife and turmoil amongst the Elandskloof Community and in late 2006 Mediation and Transformation Practise (MTP) was appointed as a development agent to facilitate the rehabilitation of Elandskloof into a viable community.
Mediation and Transformation Practice (MTP) is an African-based organizational, transformational and facilitation unit. MTP specializes in conflict resolution, training, designing dispute systems, designing and implementing public participation and development processes, designing and implementing organizational transformation processes and facilitating diversity management processes.
MTP’s brief was to address the development needs of communities resettled in Elandskloof in such a way that individual and household livelihoods would be enhanced and that Elandskloof is improved through agricultural renewal, and socio-economic development. The key objective of MTP’s mission was to ensure that the Elandskloof community owned the development processes, which MTP would facilitate, but moreover that Elandsklowers would come to terms with their past and build a lasting legacy for generations to come.
In many aspects the Elandskloof land restitution development became a microcosm on how the local community, government and a development agent, in this case MTP, should work together.
MTP through its dedicated team of project managers have over the past 18 months reached a number of milestones; o Getting active community buy-inn and participation and establishment of the Elandskloof Community Development Council o Participation of Cederberg Municipality and West Coast District Municipality in development processes at Elandskloof and inclusion into their respective IDPS for future development, as well as starting discussion around future Town Development at Elandskloof o Restoration of the old school at a cost of R250 000 o Agricultural activities through flower and orange harvesting which has created more employment o Conclusion of water audit and approval by DWAF on a regional level for building of another dam o Interim sanitation trial and possible long tem installation o Grading of access road on a regular basis o Narrative therapy sessions with community to deal with past Over and above these achievements the transference of skills to the Elandskloof Community Development Council who will ultimately take full responsibility for the development at Elandskloof, once MTP’s contractual period ends, has meant that the community will take full ownership of their own development.
In the words of MTP Managing Director, Craig Arendse, “the Elandskloof land restitution and development project presented MTP and the Department of Land Affairs with a unique challenge, in that it had to become a model of how government and affected communities in unison were able to transcend differences, come to terms with the past and implement development priorities which would leave a lasting legacy for generations to come.”
Mr. Arendse, regarded as one of the country’s leading conflict management and organizational transformation practitioners, also stated that through MTP’s Narrative Therapy sessions, Elandsklowers were individually able to come to terms with their past and the suffering they endured for years following their dispossession from the land. These Narrative Therapy sessions became the first of its kind to be used in land restitution and development programmes. Written by: Linton Rensburg
